Chapter 25: MY HAT!
Katy was getting prepared for the day, getting coffee ready, her outfit planned out, freshened up her hair and fur, and got breakfast ready for herself and Ma-San. Once they were ready, the two would step out of the apartment, just as the cat's phone would ring. Pulling her phone out, she smiled brightly when she saw it was Lammy. She quickly answered.
"I was wondering what was taking ya!" Was the first thing the cat said.
"Hello to you too, Katy." Lammy replies. "How's things going back home?"
"Pretty good for now. Haven't seen any sight of Gaster or his cronies in a hot minute. But how about you, hon? What's it like over there?"
"It looks exactly like the vacation cards." She says as the elevator started to move. "There's so much to do, and I can see it all from the penthouse!"
"Oh, that's awesome! Make sure to take a lot of pictures for us!"
"You got it! I'll call you if something interesting comes up!"
"Can't wait! Now go have fun, darn it!"
"Alright. Love you, Katy."
"Love you too, Lammy~" Katy purrs into the phone before the call ends, and she slides her phone back into her pocket.
("You sure sending her off on her own is such a good idea?") Ma-San questions as they walk down the apartment stairs and onto the sidewalk.
"I'm positive it'll be okay. I mean, what's the worst that can happen?" The feline shrugs.
("Yeah, because there's been a wonderful track record for people who say THAT out loud." The mouse rolled her eyes as they start their walk into town.
"Oh hush. Nothing we deal with today can probably compare to what Lammy had to put up with." Katy slides her hands into her pockets as they turn on one of the street corners, spotting Matt, PJ and Joe, chatting. With a smile on Katy's face, the two approached the duo approached the trio, becoming a quintet. "Hey guys!"
"Katy! What's up?" Joe asks, sliding his hands into his pockets.
"Not much! What are you guys up to?"
"We're waiting for PaRappa to catch up so we can go to the skate park." PJ explains, looking around to see if he could spot his best buddy. "He's running pretty late."
("What else is new?") Ma-San rolls her eyes. The group chuckled a bit, until they heard shouting in the distance.
"GET BACK HERE!" Looking over, they saw Gaster and Groober, running through the streets, and in Gaster's hand, as he held it up in the air was PaRappa's orange beanie, while Groober held a pair of scissors and some pink pedals. PaRappa, Sunny, whose pedals were cut, and Paula would soon become visible, as PaRappa was currently wearing a paper bag over his head. "GIMMIE BACK MY HAT!"
"IN YOUR DREAMS, SHORTY!" Gaster cackled. Seeing what was happening, Joe rushed over in an attempt to tackle the rabbit, but once he lunged, Gaster jumped up, slammed his foot down on the back of Joe's head and bounced up as Joe to the pavement, and in an attempt to catch himself, he accidentally landed on her arm, a loud crack could be heard as he growled, holding onto his arm. "Nice try, Chin!" He says as Groober rushes by, chuckling.
"Stop running!" Paula demanded, picking up a stick as she ran and chucks it at Groober, who turned his head and ducked slightly when he saw it. He started running backwards and blew a raspberry at her, which made her face glow a bright red as she growled.
"Well…now we know where PaRappa's been." PJ comments, to which Ma-San bonks him on the head with her fist.
"Come on, we gotta stop those two!" Katy said, pointing at The purple duo. She'd grab PJ, knowing he'd lag behind before giving chase, with Matt and Ma-San following close behind.
"You guys go on ahead!" Joe called out as he sat up, holding onto his arm. "MEDIC!"
With Joe's shout for medication, the others continued following after the troublesome duo. As they run through the street, cars would swerve out of the way, crashing into streetlights and buildings, alarms blaring all over the place as pedestrians began running all over the place, screaming, trying to avoid the chaos. A firetruck driven by Chief Puddle drove by at the end of the block, and Gaster and Groober would hop onto it, taunting the group chasing them.
"Thanks for the hat, losers!" Gaster cackled, waving PaRappa's beanie. PaRappa and the others would come to a stop, out of breath from chasing the truck.
"W-Well…now what?" PaRappa asks, panting as he sits down. Before anyone can say anything, they could hear honking behind them, and a white car pulled up behind them. Rolling down the window, it was shown that Papa PaRappa was the driver.
"I saw the chaos! Something tells me you guys will need this more than I do!" He says before getting out, letting the others pile in. "Just be careful with the car!"
"You got it! Thanks dad!" PaRappa smiled at his father before flooring it after the fire truck, it's sirens were blaring as it was driving faster. PaRappa was slowly able to catch up, unaware that Katy was climbing out of the back car window and climbs onto the roof of the car.
"…This is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy…" She chants as she claps her arms a few times. Knowing what she was trying to do, Gaster and Groober began climbing the fire truck to try and get away. On the rooftops, Bob and Jock smirked as they watched the action while lighting a bunch of smoke bombs.
"Alright Jock, ready?" Bob questions as they both pick a box up each.
"Hell yeah!" The rock creature chuckled.
"Alright. One…two…three!" The two threw the boxes forward, still holding onto it, letting the smoke bombs fly out of the box and onto the streets below. Once they hit the ground, they started filling the area with smoke, as Katy jumped for the truck, managing to get onto it, while smoke manages to start filling up PaRappa's car, forcing him to stop the car, so everyone could get out before they suffocate. PaRappa, Paula, PJ and Ma-San all poured out of the car, coughing and hacking as they stayed on the ground, waiting for the smoke to clear up.
Katy hugged the back of the truck, coughing up whatever bit of smoke had gotten caught in her lungs. Once she was ready, she looked up to the roof of the truck, just to see the duo were making their way to the front. She stood up, pointing a finger at them.
"Hey, creeps! Give me my friends hat!" She demanded. Gaster smirked, looking at her over his shoulder.
"Ya want it? Come get it!" He says, waving it in his hand as Groober raises the ladder. The two wasted no time in climbing it, as Katy followed suit.
"Hey! What's going on up there?!" Chief Puddle demands, sticking his head out the window and not paying attention to the road. When he turned his head, he saw a group of people walking onto the cross walk. He yelped and tried to turn sharply, causing the ladder to rotate, crashing the ladder into one of the buildings, giving Gaster and Groober a chance to get onto the rooftops. Katy was holding on for dear life, and once the truck gained composure, rocking back and forth, the feline lost her footing, falling to the side, but was able to grab onto the ladder. She tried to climb back onto the right side, but a pothole caused her to lose her grip just as she put her foot down, and her foot got caught between the bars, causing her to swing face first into one of the lower bars of the ladder. She puts her hands over her eye as she begins cursing under her breath, swinging back and forth.
"C-Chief Puddle!" She cried out a few times. Hearing this, Mama PaRappa poked her head out and looked up.
"Uhh…sir, one of my son's friends is caught in the ladder!" She says as she starts to climb out the window to get on top of the truck.
"Huh?!" He looked out the window again, not only distracting himself from the road again, but accidentally speeding up the truck, making it harder for Katy to grab the bar. His attention returned to the road when he heard people screaming and and he quickly swerved into a different street, nearly flinging Mama PaRappa off, but it gave Katy enough leverage to grab onto the ladder. Once the truck stopped swerving, Mama continued to climb up, slowly approaching the ladder and lowering it before finally helping Katy off as the truck slowly comes to a complete stop.
"What were you doing on the ladder?" Mama asks as she helps Katy off.
"It's Gaster and Groober again! They've stolen PaRappa's hat!" Katy explained as Chief Puddle got out to join them.
"They've what?!" The mother's eyes widened as they heard the two laughing on the roofs above, Gaster once again swaying the beanie in his hand, taunting the blue feline.
"Nice shiner, Kat!" He laughs. Katy snarls and looked around, picking up a rock before chucking it at the rabbit, nailing him in the head. "AH!"
"I will rip that stupid purple jacket of yours to shreds!" Katy shakes her fist angrily at the rabbit.
"Yeah? I'd like to see ya try!" He smirks before the two began running, leaving the cat fuming.
"Well? What are you waiting for?" Chief Puddle asks before getting on top of the truck to raise the ladder, resting it on the roof of the building the troublemakers were just on. "Get after 'em!"
"yes sir!" Katy salutes before climbing onto the truck and runs up the ladder, catching Gaster helping Groober up onto one of the taller buildings before running off again.
Meanwhile, PaRappa and the others were slowly able to get up after the smoke from the bombs clear, still coughing from just how strong it all was.
"Is everybody alright?" PaRappa asks, adjusting the bag on his head.
("My lungs are burning…") Ma-San grumbles as she sits up against the car.
"These guys are insane today." PJ sits up, rubbing his face exhaustedly, unaware of the sound of approaching footsteps behind him before he was suddenly scooped up.
"Yoink!" Bob Laughs, holding the teddy over his head.
"P-PJ!" PaRappa gasps as he scampers to his feet to give chase, the others running after him once they got their bearings.
"Lemme go!" PJ says, trying to squirm out of the bomb man's grip.
"No way, teddy!" He smirks, tightening his grip on PJ, but one tight twist on the bears side, he was able to get out, despite losing a bit of fabric, and he fell onto the road. Bob stops to try and grab him, but Paula shoulder tackles him, knocking him to the ground, in which the two proceeded into a fist fight that quickly became a dusty tumbleweed, bouncing off of cars and buildings, causing a few alarms to go off, while PaRappa and Ma-San helped PJ up. The drummer would let the pup help his friend get to a safer spot, and without hesitation, once spotting the bomb's boulder friend trying to join the fight, rushes over and jumps into the dust tumbleweed, as more punches and kicks can be heard as the tumbleweed became more violent.
It bounced down the streets and right into one of the buildings, a very, very tall hotel with a large clock on the front. People screamed as they either rushed out or got flung out the windows. Windows started breaking and water gushed out of the windows as a visible crack went up the building, breaking the clock and half and making it fall off the building. As the chaos ensued, Matt and Sweety arrived, both enjoying some smoothies.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" Matt asks.
"And where's your hat, PaRappa?" Sweety pointed at the bag on PaRappa's head.
"Gaster and Groober stole it." PaRappa answered.
"Katy's trying to get it back, and Paula and Ma-San are fighting Bob and Jock." PJ followed up.
"Is there anything we can do?" Matt would question before taking a sip of his smoothie, just as an unconscious Bob and an unconscious Jock lands in front of them, Ma-San and Paula panting, wiping sweat off of their foreheads, making sure not to agitate their bruises.
"Nah…we got it, Matt." Paula says as Ma-San opens up a manhole cover, to which Matt approaches the two goons, and he and Paula proceeded to gently nudge the two into the manhole with their feet. A soft whistle could be heard, followed by a loud splash.
"Well then, we better go find Katy, make sure Gaster and Groober aren't giving her too much trouble." Matt says, tossing his now empty slushie cup into the bin before the group runs off, following the trail of the once rampaging fire truck. Thankfully the chaos wasn't too hard to follow. Some people were still recovering having jumped into several local store windows just to avoid getting run over or hit by the loose ladder. The fire department team were looking after everyone. The gang looked around, trying to spot the meddlesome duo, and sure enough, within a moment, Sweety spotted two purple figures followed by a blue one.
"Over there." She says, pointing at the rooftops before sipping on her smoothie, which she hadn't finished yet. PaRappa, Paula, Ma-San and Matt ran towards the buildings, while the two teddy bears stood there and looked at each other.
"…Are you gonna finish that?" PJ asks, pointing at the smoothie.
"Probably." Sweety shrugs, taking another sip.
"Can I have a sip?"
"Sure." She hands him the cup.
"Neat." With that, the two casually followed the others at a more relaxed pace, despite all the chaos going around them. Just another day at the office for them. Taking a shortcut, the group were able to find a ladder that lead right up to the rooftops, and just as Gaster and Groober land on the building they were on, they were able to corner them.
"Ah nuts." Groober clenches his fists.
"Alright you two, your little fun is over!" Katy growled, wiping sweat off her forehead. "Give my friend his hat back!"
"No way! He's had it long enough!" Gaster reaches into his pocket and pulls out three smoke bombs which were already lit. He chucks them on the ground, causing a large puff of smoke. The gang quickly tackled into the smoke pillar, sounds of punches and kicking could be heard. When the smoke vanished, everyone suddenly stopped, realizing they were gone. Though, resting on the roof, with a tear in it, was PaRappa's beanie. They all collapse, unable to process how the two purple figures got out of their hands. The pup sighed before sitting up, picking up the beanie, switching it out with the paper bag.
"Man, they ripped a hole in it…" He whines, trying to push the tuft of hair back in, annoyed that it keeps falling back out.
"Sorry, Paps. I did my best to catch them." Katy said, rubbing the back of his head.
"It's okay. Mom showed me how to stitch things up. I'll have this thing patched up before bed!"
"Wonder what they wanted the hat for…" Matt ponders, putting a finger to his chin.
"I hope we never find out. Whatever they wanted, it clearly wasn't for anything good." PJ says, sipping on the smoothie before handing it back to Sweety.
Once things calmed down, the group began helping around town, trying to get everything back to normal, helping with repairs, making sure people were safe and getting them the help needed. Joe was getting his cast signed by a few kids who looked up to him, and he couldn't help but smile at the excitement in their eyes.
"Well, that was a mess." Chief Puddle says, giving Mama PaRappa the thumbs up to lower the ladder of the truck from the hotel after putting the clock back on. "Thankfully these creeps are easy to clean up after. Wish we could know when they'll attack."
"Yeah, I know how you feel, Chief." Mama says, shaking her head. "Liked to give them a piece of my mind for hurting my son and his friends…"
After everything was said and done, PaRappa, Katy and the others dragged themselves back to MilkCan's apartment. PaRappa, Katy and Joe collapsed on the couch, PJ went face first onto the floor, Sweety sat down and rested against PJ, and Ma-San and Paula went to the kitchen to put frozen peas on their bruises.
("There's gotta be a way to get rid of these guys that's legal…") Ma-San grumbles.
"Oh, trust me, I've been trying to figure that out." Paula says, pressing her frozen peas to her face.
PaRappa continued playing with the tear in his hat, still a little frazzled from having it be stolen right off of him. Suddenly, the ringtone of Katy's phone caught everyone off guard, making them all jump as Katy scrambled to pull it out of her pocket. She looked at the screen and saw it was Lammy, wanting to facetime her. She gulps nervously as everyone gathered around, and Katy accepts the call. The screen switches, showing Lammy's face.
"Hey gu-" She paused when she saw them, her eyes darting a bit to examine everyone she could see. "Woah…what happened to you guys?!"
"…Take a wild guess, hon…" Katy said, rubbing her face tiredly before she began to explain everything that happened. From PaRappa's hat being stolen, to all the chaos Gaster and his goons caused, even down to their injuries. Lammy just looked tired after hearing all of that.
"I…I was gone for only a day!" She sounded exhausted too.
"I-I know, hon, I know. They caught us off guard with the whole hat thing!"
"Maybe I should come back early…"
"Wha-no! No! You need to stay for the week!"
"What? Why? Right now, I'm the only one who knows how to use their cosmic instrument!"
"Yeah, but it's all already paid for, and I can't really get a refund!"
"Really?"
"Yeah. Plus, I don't think we need to use those instruments on them. It'd be overkill."
"Alright…Oh! Well, on my end, I have some great news!" She says.
"Oh? What's up?" PaRappa asks.
"Check out who I got to hang out with today!" She says before turning the phone to reveal Vibri, who was doing a pose, waving a hand at them.
"Hello, Lammy's friends!" She greets, smiling at their dumbfounded faces.
"V-Vibri!" Joe's jaw dropped.
"Yep! Turns out I was staying at the same hotel as your friend! She's told me so much about all of you! You guys are awesome! So much so, when I go back on tour, I wanna perform in PaRappa Town first, WITH MILKCAN!" She squeals, bouncing around in excitement. The silence that followed, you could almost hear a pin drop. The phone slipped out of Katy's hand, and PaRappa quickly catches it, yelping in surprise, follow by a loud thud.
"W-What was that?!" Lammy asks.
"Nothing!" PaRappa says.
"Katy fell unconscious!" Matt followed up. "I think the idea of performing with one of Japan's biggest idols was a bit too much for her to process!"
"…So, is that a yes?" Vibri giggles nervously.
"Yes!" Katy says, suddenly shooting her head up. "Yes, yes, a million times yes! This is gonna be so cool!" She says before hoping around herself, nearly matching Vibri's excitement.
"YAY!" Vibri began bouncing around excitedly, Lammy having to duck a few times to avoid getting tackled.
"When are you gonna come by to perform?"
"I leave the islands tomorrow, and I'll be spending a few weeks at home, but then I'll be starting my tour!"
"But when can we expect to see you in town?" Katy asks.
"Probably at the start of the month!" Vibri nods.
"Awesome!" PaRappa grins. "I hope we can do a rap battle together!"
"Oh! That'll be fun!" The rabbit girl says, hoping around excitedly.
"And once I get back, we can practice!" Lammy smiled.
"This is gonna be so cool!" Paula says, clapping her hands together.
"Alright, I think it's time for me to get some shut eye." Vibri yawns, stretching her arms up, her body vibrating. "I'll see you guys real soon!" She waved to everybody that she saw on the screen before skipping away, everyone saying goodnight and wishing her the best before the camera went back to Lammy.
"I can't believe it." Katy shook her head. "We get to collab with one of the greatest pop stars ever…"
"Aside from what you guys had to go through, I think our luck is finally turning around!" Lammy says.
"Don't jinx it." PJ and Sweety say in unison before everyone started to laugh.
"Well come on, Lammy! Tell us what ya did!" Joe says as everyone began to gather around again.
"Well, obviously, it all started when Vibri decided to join me at the hotel's pool side…"
Meanwhile, Gaster and Groober were walking back to their secret hideout, whistling to themselves, listening to their tunes bounce off the walls of the sewers along with the dripping water from the leaking pipes. Gaster leaned against the door before knocking "Shave and a haircut" on it before it opened up, revealing Bob, who was still cleaning himself with soap and water.
"Welcome back." He greets, stepping aside to let them in.
"Did you guys bring what I asked for?" Muto questions, turning in his chair to look at the two.
"I got the girls pedals." Groober says, opening his palm to reveal Sunny's clipped pedals.
"We weren't able to snag the beanie, but I managed to get some of the fabric." Gaster opens his palm, revealing an orange patch of fabric in his hand.
"That's good enough. I can rebuild a new hat with just that patch alone." He says as he's handed the goods.
"So, what exactly do you need these for anyways?" Gaster crosses his arms, leaning against the wall.
"Originally, I was going to plant a mind control device in the boy's hat. However, I can build a new hat around my device, and still get the same results!"
"Alright…what about the pedals?" Groober scratches his head, still not sure what the main thought process was when it came to the pedals.
"I will create an army of flower girls that'll take over the town!" He cackled before turning in his chair to go back to work. Everyone else looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
"…Are we sure we want to keep this nutcase around?" Jock asks, leaning towards Gaster in a hush tone.
"Let's just…see where he has to go with this…I'm kinda curious." He whispered back. "If things go south, we'll kick 'em to the curve."
"I heard that! I know my ideas are less than ideal, but I promise, once in action, my schemes will have appeal!" Everyone just looked at him like he had murdered somebody.
"Did he just rhyme?"
"Dude is off his rocker…" Bob said, twirling a finger at the side of his head. Gaster just shakes his head before grabbing one of the blueprints on Muto's table. A giant robotic version of the monster from the Jet Baby movie. Once they finally get that up and going, they were going to have some real fun watching it rampage through the city. For now, though, they were gonna have to try and humor the scientist and his strange ideas. The real trouble was going to be finding a good place to build it.
Oh well, just something to keep in mind of in the future.